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This Cream Cheese Pasta recipe is a super speedy 10 minute midweek meal. Add whatever vegetables or meat you have in the fridge and you’re good to go. A delicious addition to your go-to pasta recipes that the whole family will love.
Midweek dinners, ready in 10 minutes, are 100% my happy place.
After work, school pick up, clubs and so on and… sometimes? Dinner is just TOO MUCH for my poor brain.
This quick Cream Cheese Pasta recipe comes to our rescue, my friends.
Simple but so good!
More super quick pasta recipes…
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Why you’ll love this Cream Cheese Pasta recipe
⭐️ So QUICK to make
⭐️ Uses up any veg or meat leftovers in the fridge
⭐️ Everyone loves it – clean plates all round
How we came up with this recipe
If you see how many cheesecake recipes I have, you won’t be surprised to hear that I always have a tub of cream cheese in the fridge.
One of the things I wanted to do was to give inspiration to home cooks who have nothing prepared, nothing defrosted, no time or clue about what dinner involves that day.
Believe me when I say a humble tub of cream cheese can be the base of your main meal, any day of the week, and everyone is likely to love it because it’s so tasty.
I often use a combination of petit pois and bacon for added sweetness/saltiness and a few chopped courgettes, as this combination works SO well, but you can honestly customise this dish with whatever you like or have in.
Cream Cheese Pasta Ingredients Notes
- Pasta – Use whichever shape of dried pasta you like
- Olive oil – Alternatively if I’m using a very fatty bacon, like pancetta lardons, I leave out the oil as it’s not needed
- Bacon – Or, as above, lardons or pancetta or something similar
- Onion and garlic – I use the pre-prepared frozen and chopped variety here. An onion weighs about 150g, so replace with that pre-chopped weight. Garlic is about 5g per clove so I use 10g (2 tsp)
- Courgettes – I cut these up into small pieces. You can add whichever vegetables you like though
- Petit pois – I use the frozen kind
- Cream cheese – Use whichever you prefer to buy. Don’t feel like you need to use Philadelphia here. Supermarket own brands are fine. You can use reduced fat if you like (I often do). The sauce will have a slightly different texture, not as rich and creamy, but it’s still really delicious
- Parmesan – This is optional
How to make Cream Cheese Pasta
- Start your pasta cooking in boiling, salted water. Meanwhile, cook the bacon, onion, garlic and courgettes in hot oil until softened.
- Add in the peas to the pasta cooking water about 3-4 minutes before it’s cooked.
- Stir the cream cheese into the pan with the sauce mixture in, add salt and pepper, parmesan and a couple of spoonfuls of pasta water. Stir until smooth.
- Drain the pasta and add to the vegetables and sauce.
Substitutions
- Vegetarian – Simply omit the bacon or replace with a meat substitute
Leftovers
In the fridge This is so good eaten either cold or reheated well the next day. You may need to add a splash of water when you reheat it if it’s a little dry.
In the freezer I’m not a big fan of freezing pasta as it can go quite mushy when defrosted and reheated.
All that said, there’s nothing wrong with freezing for a lunch if you have leftovers, it’s just not quite as good as fresh or reheated from the fridge.
More cream cheese recipes…
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Slow Cooker Marry Me Chicken
Cheesecakes
Biscoff Cheesecake {5 Ingredient Recipe!}
Family Dinner Ideas
Creamy Sausage Pasta {One Pot}
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FAQs
You can if you want to but you don’t have to. I always use Philadelphia in my cheesecake recipes, but it doesn’t matter which kind you use in this pasta dish.
Instead you can go for a different brand or the supermarket’s own brand.
You can choose a slightly flavoured one if you want to try that (like garlic and herb, for example) and it’s up to you whether you go for full fat or reduced fat (this won’t be quite as creamy but still delicious).
I wouldn’t, just because it’s so quick anyway and the pasta ‘sauce’ you cream with the cream cheese is best eaten fresh.
All that said, I wouldn’t waste leftovers and would just have them cold for lunch the next day. You can reheat leftovers (some of the sauce will have soaked into the pasta though.)
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Cream Cheese Pasta {10 Minute Meal}
Ingredients
- 300 g (11 oz) Dried pasta, See notes
- 1 tsp Olive oil, See notes
- 250 g (9 oz) Bacon, Cut into small pieces
- 1 Onion, Peeled and finely chopped | See notes
- 2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled and finely chopped | See notes
- 3 Courgettes, Trimmed and cut into small pieces
- 200 g (7 oz) Petit pois, Frozen
- 250 g (9 oz) Cream cheese, Any kind
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 50 g (2 oz) Parmesan cheese, Grated | Optional
Instructions
- Put the pasta into boil in a large pan of salted water.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large saucepan or deep frying pan, and fry the bacon, onion, garlic and courgettes until softened and starting to brown. (This will take about the same time as the pasta.)
- 3-4 Minutes before the pasta is due to finish cooking, add in the peas with the boiling pasta to cook in the same water.
- Take the pan with the fried vegetables. Stir in the cream cheese, salt and pepper, parmesan and a couple of ladles of the water from the pasta pan. Stir until smooth.
- Drain the pasta and add to the vegetables and sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Its amazing, keep going
Loved the easy of this recipe. I added chicken mushrooms and sundried tomatoes and every bowl was licked clean! No left overs for lunch unfortunately.
Just tried cheesy pasta it’s brilliant! Went down really well with all the family. I have passed the recipe on to my daughter.
I adapted this for two, but it didn’t look much in the pan, so I threw some prawns in to bulk it up – masterstroke! Delicious.
Really delicious and I only used a spoonful of cream cheese, a little goes a long way!
This is the tastiest meal I have made in ages – absolutely delicious and very easy. 5 stars!